HotAir broke this one yesterday, and so far, no one has picked up on it.

Heidi Heitkamp's campaign, in rushing to capitalize on #MeToo and try to save her election chances in the wake of the Kavanaugh Effect, committed
what could be a serious blunder with legal ramification.

See, her challenger made remarks about how female members of his family could not understand the victimization stance of so many of the #MeToo
movement. Truthfully, I don't get it either. It's not that I don't sympathize with people who are victims, but they need to seek to heal and move
on, not dwell on it so badly that they make every male wear the face of their attacker or abuser like some of these women clearly do.

Anyhow ...

Sen Heitkamp was upset by this and apparently decided to capitalize on it by running a full-page ad in the Bismarck Times and several other
papers on Sunday. The ad contains a statement about survivors of sexual abuse and is signed by 127 women who, in the context of the ad, are
identifying themselves as survivors. But some of the women named in the ad came forward to say they never consented to have their names appear in it.

This is where the problems begin. The women named by Heitkamp didn't consent to be named, and even worse than that not all of them are
victims!

Somehow, the Heitkamp campaign generated a list of names that isn't even all authentic and they never asked these women if they wanted to be
identified. One woman said this to the AP when they asked her about it:

Lexi Zhorela told The Associated Press that she learned of the ad Monday night

“I’m furious,” the 24-year-old hairdresser and single mother from Bismarck said. “I know I’m not the only woman hurt by this.”

Zhorela said she was listed in the ad because she had been tagged by a friend in a Facebook post who knew she had been the victim of sexual
assault.

“I have only shared my story with a couple of people in confidence,” she said. “I didn’t want it blasted for the world to see.”

Zhorela said she had intended to vote for Heitkamp in November but will “definitely not now.”

According to her, she never told more than a few people, and she *still* wound up in this ad. Either some of the few people she told in confidence
weren't very trustworthy, or one of them was connected to Heitkamp directly (still not trustworthy).

So the question is now where these names were pulled from, especially since some of them weren't even victims to begin with but now everyone
connected to them thinks they are. How embarrassing and humiliating.

And now, despite an apology from the Heitkamp campaign, lawyers are
getting involved. Sometimes sorry won't cut it. Imagine living in a small town of 500 or so and suddenly being falsely outed as a survivor of
sexual assault or rape or abuse. That can roil entire communities.

What will be the grounds for the lawsuit? Invasion of privacy for anyone who didn’t consent to be publicly named, and perhaps libel in cases
where the women weren’t victims of domestic violence at all. Invasion of privacy does cover the public disclosure of “embarrassing private
information” for those who are not “public persons,” which certainly seems applicable in this case. Libel might be a tough haul under these
circumstances, as it usually applies to falsehoods that damage one’s reputation; being called a victim of domestic violence isn’t exactly an
insult. However, the domestic partners of those women, past and present, might have a case for it. A coordinated lawsuit might have a wide number of
plaintiffs, if the attorney they get is adventurous enough.

This is a colossal blunder. Heitkamp has got a tough job recovering from this one.

I doubt she will recover. She was already down by double digits in the polls, so this blunder is just the cherry on top. Plus I hear she is just
blaming the mistake on a staffer now instead of owning up to her mistakes as real leaders do.

One thing's for sure, no matter what you are doing, you don't use a person's name unless you know they'd approve of it.

That's what I was getting at. I know everything regarding the campaign isn't ran by the candidate, but when you name names, especially regarding
sexual assault victims, I'd assume some double checks would've happened. But I guess not.

They did this, they manipulated the warren situation into happening, and I'm positive they used some sort of mind control on the people that were
interviewed in the recent project veritas reports.

Because of them russians, we will be relegated to several more years of nazi control via the republican party. We were also cheated out of a historic
first, via warrens future presidential run and assured win. We could have had not only the first woman president, but the first native american
president. A truly historic opportunity.

originally posted by: tjack
Doxxing their own constituents now...classy move! What kind of mentality, even for a second, would think that this was a good play?

Almost starting to feel like the Dems are trying to throw the election, like when the Repubs ran McCain.

Throwing the election, its probably the smart move. Circle your wagons endure best you can, and give the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves.
Lets face it in todays world the incumbents get ravaged as public trust is at a low for public officials. Doubt the GOP cant survive 2-3 years without
a few blunders themselves. Dems need to be less conspicuous in their efforts to discredit the Republicans and Trump. Just let nature take its course,
sooner or later they will legitimately caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

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